Tsiigehtchic

Tsiigehtchic Tsiigehtshik
Charter Community
Charter Community of Tsiigehtchic
The Church in Tsiigehtchic with the Arctic Red River and Mackenzie River in the background
Tsiigehtchic Tsiigehtchic
Coordinates: 67°26′26″N 133°44′43″W
Country	Canada
Territory	Northwest Territories
Region	Inuvik Region
Constituency	Mackenzie Delta
Census division	Region 1
Mission	1868
Charter Community	21 June 1993
Government
• Chief	Phillip Blake
• Senior Administrative Officer	Jeff Mercier
• MLA	Frederick Blake Jr.
Area
• Land	48.98 km2 (18.91 sq mi)
Elevation	6 m (20 ft)
Population  (2011)
• Total	172
• Density	3.5/km2 (9/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC−07:00 (MST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−06:00 (MDT)
Canadian Postal code	X0E 0B0
Area code	867
Telephone exchange	953
- Living cost	167.5
- Food price index	170.3
Sources:Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Canada Flight Supplement ^A 2013 figure based on Edmonton = 100 ^B 2015 figure based on Yellowknife = 100

Tsiigehtchic ( TSEE-getch-ik; "mouth of the iron river"), officially the Charter Community of Tsiigehtchic, is a Gwich'in community located at the confluence of the Mackenzie and the Arctic Red Rivers, in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The community was formerly known as Arctic Red River, until 1 April 1994. The Gwichya Gwich'in First Nation is located in Tsiigehtchic.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Tsiigehtchic had a population of 138 living in 59 of its 73 total private dwellings, a change of -19.8% from its 2016 population of 172. With a land area of 47.89 km² (18.49 sq mi), it had a population density of 2.9/km² (7.5/sq mi) in 2021.

In 2016, 130 people identified as First Nations and 10 as Inuit. However, only 5 people said that an Indigenous language (Gwich’in) was their mother tongue.

Transportation

The Dempster Highway, NWT Highway 8, crosses the Mackenzie River at Tsiigehtchic. During winter, vehicle traffic is over the ice, during the rest of the year, traffic is carried by the ferry MV Louis Cardinal.

The ferry stops at Tsiigehtchic, on the eastern bank of the Arctic Red River, and on the southwestern and northeastern banks of the Mackenzie River, connecting the two legs of the Dempster Highway. The community is one of the few in the NWT not to be served by a permanent airport.

Steppe bison carcass

In early September 2007, near Tsiigehtchic, local resident Shane Van Loon discovered a carcass of a steppe bison, which was radiocarbon dated to c. 13,650 cal BP. This carcass appears to represent the first Pleistocene mummified soft tissue remains from the glaciated regions of northern Canada (Zazula et al. 2009).

See also

• Arctic Red River Water Aerodrome
• List of municipalities in the Northwest Territories